1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the use of an iron catalyst in the electrochemical gasification of carbonaceous materials in an aqueous acidic electrolyte.
2. Prior Art
It is known in the art that carbonaceous materials when mixed with an aqueous acidic electrolyte in an electrochemical cell through which a direct current passes electrochemically react oxidizing the carbonaceous material to oxides of carbon at the anode and reducing water to hydrogen or metallic ions to metallic elements at the cathode.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,363 teaches the electrochemical gasification of carbonaceous materials by anodic oxidation which produces oxides of carbon at the anode and hydrogen or metallic elements at the cathode of an electrolysis cell.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,683 teaches the method of producing hydrogen by reacting coal or carbon dust with hot water retained as water by superatmospheric pressure. The pressure is controlled by the use of an inert dielectric liquid which washes the electrodes and, while doing so, depolarizes them by absorption of the gases.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,132 teaches a method wherein electrodes are immersed within oil which forms a layer over a quantity of water. When current is passed between the electrodes, water is caused to undergo electrodecomposition. Gaseous hydrogen is collected in the sealed space above the oil-water layers, and the oxygen is believed to react with the constituents in the oil layer.
As acknowledged in U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,683, the principal problem in the past use of this principle for commercial production of hydrogen, was the slow rate of the electrochemical reaction of coal or carbon and water. It has now been found that iron, when added to an aqueous acidic electrolyte containing the carbonaceous material, and preferably iron in the +3 valence state, catalyzes the rate of reaction and assists in obtaining more complete oxidation for the electrochemical oxidation of the carbonaceous material at the anode thus making the commercial production of hydrogen or method of electrowinning commercially feasible.